Low APM versus High APM Balance

Thal

One of the aspects of ESO I fell in love with is the original high APM combat. ESO in recent years has made fantastic strides in accessibility for players who do not want or cannot due to disabilities play with that playstyle, allowing most anyone to clear difficult content. This is great!

Not to single out Arcanists, but the power of the beam + subclassing is now creating a very, very low APM meta that basically outcompetes high APM except perhaps in single target parses. Everything we play in reality involves adds and multiple targets.

I’m going to just take as a given that we are accepting a certain level of power creep in this new patch, so my suggestion is power creep for playstyles that would like to retain high APM versus beaming for over 5 seconds, flailing once, and repeating (yes I’m oversimplifying but you can legitimately clear hard modes only doing this).

Could we explore perhaps an Undaunted passive that increases damage done to monsters up to X% (perhaps 10%) if and only if you have taken an action every 1.5 seconds? Just looking to give the classes that still want to do a spammable every second and “button mash” (if you will) something in this very low APM environment.

It would fall off instantly for the two major beams (Arc and Plar) as well as Heavy Attack low APM builds and give some power back elsewhere to players who enjoy a higher pace of play.

Soarora

I feel like we need more single-target fights. It got brought up in a core I’m in also that bosses differing in resistances to different status effects would be awesome. Could make a boss resistant to magic damage and now all of a sudden beaming on arcanist isn’t gonna work.

AdmiralDigby

I like low APM builds for those that want it (specifically those with less time to invest or disability issues).

With that said. Low APM takes less skill. I think builds DPS ceiling should always reflect their skill ceiling.

My main issue with Arc isn't that it's an easier option. It's that it's an easier options while being the Strongest DPS in game.

To clarify I know Arc isn't the most ST. However it's ability to dominate aoe fights (most content). Be able to dps in front of them 20m and behind them 5m. Lastly being able to hit moving targets being less reliant on ground dots make them absolute king in content.

Thal

AdmiralDigby wrote: »

I like low APM builds for those that want it (specifically those with less time to invest or disability issues).

With that said. Low APM takes less skill. I think builds DPS ceiling should always reflect their skill ceiling.

My main issue with Arc isn't that it's an easier option. It's that it's an easier options while being the Strongest DPS in game.

To clarify I know Arc isn't the most ST. However it's ability to dominate aoe fights (most content). Be able to dps in front of them 20m and behind them 5m. Lastly being able to hit moving targets being less reliant on ground dots make them absolute king in content.

Exactly the point I was going for - the reward for playing high APM is no longer in place for anything worth clearing. It’s a very boring playstyle for me personally but I have no hate for it. I’d just like some dev consideration to equally consider low vs high APM balance, as subclassing (and new mythic) seem to be boosting Arc combos and HA builds even further. Perhaps a high APM mythic that actually clears Velothi 😂

Thal

Soarora wrote: »

I feel like we need more single-target fights. It got brought up in a core I’m in also that bosses differing in resistances to different status effects would be awesome. Could make a boss resistant to magic damage and now all of a sudden beaming on arcanist isn’t gonna work.

Or fights that have AOE interrupts every 2 seconds 😂 make the beam onerous

necro_the_crafter

Something like APM vs Timings would be a nice thing.
For example, If we had a buff that charges for 2 seconds, increasing our direct damage done for X% every 0.2 secs - you land a hit early you consume non-fully-buffed version losing potential damage, if you too late bonus falls off and you are left with nothing, that will make a fun rotation that will require precise timings to benefit from it. That will reward low APM playstyles but still require timing skills to land your juicy hits.